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Monday, November 18, 2013

Kindergarten Literacy Activities

As a teacher who teaches both kindergarten AND first grade, it takes me a l-o-n-g time to plan my weekly activities. So, as a creator, I like to make activities that my students can use for the whole year. That way, all I have to do is print, prep, and go! And, I especially love activities that are creative, fun, and engaging, with not much prep work. And simple directions. I love all the cutsie activities I see all over blogland, but I just don't have the time to do a lot of laminating, cutting, thinking, and explaining each week!

So, with that being said, I recently finished my kindergarten literacy activity pack, and it is definitely creative, fun, and engaging, and there is VERY minimal prep work. So, if you're like me and you don't like little pieces and long directions, this may be the answer to your prayers too!

These kindergarten literacy activities cover the following skills:

Beginning Sounds

(Includes activity sheets and puzzles.)

CVC Words

(Includes activity sheets and matching game cards.)

Middle Sounds

(Includes activity sheets and sorting cards.)

Ending Sounds

(Includes activity sheets and puzzles.)

Rhyming Words

(Includes activity sheets and matching cards.)

Syllables

(Includes activity sheets and sorting cards.)

To help you teach each skill, I included 5 different activity sheets (except for ending sounds, which has 3) and lots of colorful picture cards. You can choose to use just the activity cards or just the activity sheets, or a combination of the two. And, because there are so many different activity sheets, you can do one whole group, to help you introduce the skill, use one in your small groups or during station time, use one for homework, use one for an assessment, and use one as a spiral review later on.

Here are some images of my students completing a beginning sounds activity sheet. I chose not to use the matching cards for this lesson, but I will for tomorrow's lesson.

All the activity sheets look the same. Just the skills change. Now that my students are familiar with them, I can put them out weekly at a station and not worry about having to explain how to complete it. Cut this, match that, glue here, write there! It's just not for me! Time is of the essence! Halfway through l-o-n-g directions, I've already lost most of their attention!

I hope that I haven't lost your attention yet! ;)

If you would like to try the above activity, I included it in the preview of this product. All you have to do is click the cute little doggie below to get it! Grab it while it's on sale!

This is Max! He doesn't like a lot of prep work either!

Or listening to long directions!

Actually, he just doesn't like listening...period!

Don't let that sweet look fool you!

He is a little devil!

Here are some more fun literacy activities that are easy to prep and can be used all year long...

Play Dough is so much fun for the children! They don't even realize they are working. They love to roll snakes and lay them on top of the letters. The beginning sounds mats have introduced them to a ton of new words to learn how to spell. They just cover the first sound in each word, but they can't help but notice how to spell all these new words. It's great!

This is a great game for sight word practice. Ask children to write their words over and over again and they'll just be so bored. But have them a roll a dice before they write their words and, well, that just changes everything! How exciting!

I hope I've given you some ideas for fun activities that are engaging and creative, but that require very little thought and energy to prep.

Don't forget to download the free beginning sounds activity sheet! If you didn't click on Max above, you can click on the image below.